It’s been an amusing four weeks since “America’s Got Talent” returned to the airwaves for its sixth season. From Los Angeles to Atlanta to Minneapolis, the talent pool has been diverse and colorful, with some amazing moments and hopeless humiliation packed into every episode.

Except Wednesday’s episode brought the NBC talent show’s auditions to New York City. And any theatrical competition located that close to Broadway begs to be held to a higher standard of competition.

So the general blandness that defined many of the episode’s auditions came as something of a letdown, with no clear knockout acts.

"This is so mediocre," a perplexed Piers Morgan observed right after a series of lackluster acts. "It's disappointing."

And yet, as with any AGT show, there were enough wacky moments that deserved some further recognition. Here’s a look at the best — and worst — acts from Wednesday night.

THE BEST

Al “The Human Knot”: The night’s weirdest acts didn’t appear until the tail end of the episode. In the case of The Human Knot, he was briefly shown, a la that Stretch Armstrong toy, bending his right arm way behind his head during one of the lead-ins following a commercial break. He even threw in a wide-eyed sadistic laugh into the act, startling judges Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel. Problem is, they cut the video away before we could see the rest of the act. What other appendages can he bend? And how far? I guess we’ll never know.

ELEW: In terms of eccentric persona, ELEW ruled the night. Walking onstage to a stool-less piano, this professed Jimi Hendrix worshipper banged out a frantic version of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” at one point even reaching into the body of the baby grand to press down on the instrument’s strings. It was definitely unique — a performer who plays the piano as he would a guitar.

“I think you’re a bit of a genius,” a seemingly stunned Morgan sputtered out. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but I’d definitely like to see which classic rock songs he can grind out as the season continues.

Landau Eugene Murphy Jr.: Besides the long name, the first impression cast by this 36-year-old carwasher is his obvious rags-to-riches appeal. Wearing a black t-shirt and dreadlocks, Murphy looks likeable enough, but seemed to embody the kind of sweethearted yokel this show pounces on when they slip up onstage. So when Murphy came out of nowhere to launch into a fun rendition of Ol’ Blue Eyes’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” his baritone voice at once in tune and in rhythm, he hands-down authored the young season’s most unexpected moment. The judges were likewise blown away, and sent an emotional Murphy on his way to Vegas.

While I see Murphy as an early fan favorite, I do have to wonder: How good will his act really be now that the shock value is gone? What other standards from the Great American Songbook will he put the moves on next?

THE WORST

Triple Threat: The show didn’t exactly get off to a rousing start, as dance troupe “Triple Threat” opened up the city’s auditions with a whimpering performance. The four-person group, aged 17 to 22, looked kind of rattled as they stood before the judges, and that lack of comfort probably contributed to the failure of their act, an unsuccessful fusion of old-fashioned American swing dance and Zac Efron’s “You Can’t Stop the Beat.” It didn’t take long for the panel to harshly buzz them.

“I’ve got some ideas for you,” Piers offered. “We need to change the look, the dancing, the hand-waving. We need to remove the cheese factor from this act.” Ouch!

The Parrot Wizard: From now on, I don’t want to see any more tricks involving parrots, talking or otherwise. In this case, a poor bespectacled kid stood onstage in a red Captain Hook costume — think Leon Trotsky slipping into Dustin Hoffman’s outfit from the Steven Spielberg movie — and tried to get his green parrot to … dance? Do aerobics? Something? I couldn’t tell, because whatever the Wizard was aiming for, he clearly came up short as the frightened animal refused to play along. To add insult to injury, he next had to stand onstage while the judges mercilessly lampooned his failed act, his worthless green bird standing idly on his hand. Poor guy.

Riley Schillaci: “There are different ways to desensitize you gag reflex,” this humorless 24-year-old deadpans to the camera shortly before she takes the stage. A sword-swallower, she tells the judges that as a child, she first practiced her craft using forks, knives and even toothbrushes. Thus begins her act, where she lowers a three-foot sword down her throat, not missing a beat until she gets all the way to the handle. But she wasn’t done yet. To “prove” the sword was real, she invites host Nick Cannon to pull the now-glistening sword from her mouth, all while twirling a hula-hoop around her waist. Say what you want about this girl, but I’ve never seen such a feat. As it turned out, the judges weren’t nearly as impressed, sending Riley home with three “no” votes.

I'll be honest: I'm getting anxious to see the competition heat up, when contestants do their best to convince America they have what it takes to win $1 million and a slot as a Las Vegas headliner. Still, auditions aren't over yet, and the next new episode is scheduled to air Tuesday night at 8 p.m. on NBC.

But all this is just my take. What did you think? You can keep the conversation going by posting your comments below.